How to disable directory listing in Apache

Directory listing in Apache is provided by the AutoIndex module. If enabled, Apache will show the list of files and folders if no DirectoryIndex files are present in a particular path or folder.

It's a handy feature for sure but you might want to disable directory browsing for security or any other other reasons.

Automated directory index for Apache could be disabled by disabling mod_autoindex altogether, set appropriate options in Apache configuration file or by using htaccess file.

If you're hosting on platforms such as cPanel, you can use platform-specific methods to disable Apache's directory listing.

The easiest way is probably to disable the autoindex module entirely and disabling the module would affect all the sites hosted on the server.

1. Launch your preferred terminal application
2. Disable autoindex module for Apache.

   $ sudo a2dismod --force autoindex # Ubuntu, Debian and SUSE
   Module autoindex disabled.
   To activate the new configuration, you need to run:
     systemctl restart apache2

   • Distributions with a2dismod support can simply run the command above without having to manually disable the required modules.
   • LoadModule directive for the corresponding autoindex module need to be manually disabled by removing or commenting (by adding # at the beginning) the line in the configuration file.

   How to enable or disable Apache modules

   Options	Debian, Ubuntu	openSUSE and SLES	Fedora Core, CentOS, RHEL	macOS	homebrew	xampp
   a2dismod support	yes	yes	no	no	no	no
   Modules to uninstall	none
   Module name	n/a		autoindex
   Loadmodule directive	n/a		#LoadModule autoindex_module <module_locations>/mod_autoindex.so

3. Restart Apache for the changes to take effect.

   How to start, restart and stop Apache service

You can add -Indexes to Options directive in Apache's configuration file to fully disable directory listing, or add the same -Indexes option into Directory configuration to disable the feature per-directory.

1. Open Apache's configuration file using your preferred text editor.

   $ sudo vi /etc/apache2/other/mysite.conf

   The configuration could be set globally or from within VirtualHost configuration.

   Location for Apache VirtualHost configuration files

2. Add -Indexes to Options directive for required directory.

   <Directory /var/www/mysite>
       Options -Indexes
   </Directory>

   Notice that it's -Indexes and not +Indexes

3. Restart Apache for the changes to take effect.

   How to start, restart and stop Apache service

If you don't have administrator access to the system or just want to easily manage directory listing on per-directory basis, you can use the above Options -Indexes directive in htaccess files.

1. Open or create htaccess file on the directory that you wnt to disable listing using your preferred text editor.

   $ sudo vi /var/www/mysite/.htaccess

2. Add -Indexes to Options directive in the htaccess file.

   Options -Indexes